Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1887-08-13
The Union Labor Convention

Int 0AAQA L1DOE GOAE64L4C4-
The Autobiography Convention held
last Saturday at this place, was well at
tended, and was a body Of intelligent
respectable looking men. The plat
form adopted was very lengthy-Was
in fact longer than the platform OF any
National Convention ever held in this
country. Il starts out like the Declare
ton of Independence, and Is after that
style throughout. Ii contains many
good things and some things not 50
good. 1t accuses the Democratic and
Republican parties Of committing every
crime in the catalogue Of crimes. Not
a sentence occurs in which there is any
acknowledgement that either % the old
parties ever did q single good act. Il
proceeds on the theory that all the
troubles that flesh is heir 70 is Charga-
ble 70 one or the other Of the old par
ties-that poverty ignorance moral
depravitys RIGHTEOUSNESS, sin ana in
EQUITY OF every sort, style and quality
can be cured by laws passed by legislR-
lures and Congresses. The HERALD
has not space IN which to indulge in
very extended comments. We viii
only say now that so far as the Repub-
ltcan party is concerned, it has done
some good in the past. 1t opposed he
African slave trade; i COntended
against the planting Of slavery in the
territories it declared in favor of the
Union; through its first president it
abolished slavery; it enfranchised the
negro ; it established the free school
system in the south where it had power
TO do so; IL has given several states IA
prOhibitOry liquor laws 1t gave the poor
man a homestead law; and it did about
all that has been done towards enfran-
chising woman. The HERALD does
not contend that the Republican party
did all that it might have have doIe for
the good of the country, neither do we
say that it has meyer been wrong, for
we know that 1t has made some serious
blunders; what we insist on in this arti-
Gle is, that It deserves some credit for
good accomplished in the past. Our
anti-mOnOpOly friends ought not to be
too sweeping in their denunciatiOns.
Political parties are composed of people,
and parties advance exactly in the same
ratio that the people who compose them
advance. 1t is a mistaken notion to
think that we can usher in the millen-
mum by enacting laws providing that,
the people shall no longer be unjust,
selfish, nor ignorant, nor disposed to
wrong their fellow men, but shall all be
intelligent and good, Our anti-mOnOp-
oily friends commit two errors, one in
charging every species Of crime on the
old political parties, and the other in
| teaching the doctrine that all evils can
be abolished by law. The truth lies
between these two extremes. Parties
| (the people, have advanced in the past
and they (the people, will progress IN
the future. What is needed is educa-
/ ton Of the people, especially the chill
dren. leach them the Golden Rule
that 81 an injury to one human beingi
no matte: how humble or OBSCURE is
/ the concern of all.' Develop in them
! a keen sense of Justice and right. After
I you get the people right intellectually
and morally the political parties will
be right: for parties are Just what the
/ people are who compose them. Make
/ the people temperate, intelligent, IN
selfish and honest, and then you will
| have that sort of parties, and it will not
matter much il you have a good many
| less laws and fewer courts. Editors
and all others can work in the party OF
| their choice or outside Of all political
| OrganizatiOns,t to make people more just
[ toward their fellow man. With a feel
! ing different from that of our friends
| who met in last Saturdays convention
we do not denOunCe the new Union La
/ Dor party. We do not impugn the mo-
tives of that organization. The HER
AIDS advice is to all, let US not be fanat.
/ les and OK tremists. But, belong to
whatever party We may, let us by the
! advocacy of equity, temperance and al
( good works, help to push the race for
! ward and upward to q higher plane.
/ The new Labor party may accomplish
much good, and we hope It will, but we
know that the republican party yet holds
! in its ranks tens Of thousands OF the
ablest, purest, nOblest philanthrOphists
of the land, and we hope and believe
/ that that great party has not yet filled
/ its mission, and that it will, for many
years yet, move grandly forward in
the work Of lettering the condition OF
mankind.